GH Jnr: Chim↑Pom “Hiroshima!!!!!” Exhibition

I went to the Chim↑Pom exhibition at the Kyunichigin with my dad tonight.

It was free to go in. Inside the door there were some burnt paintings with pictures of things like Mickey Mouse, and the Hiroshima Carp baseball team logo. At first I wondered why they made them. Then, I watched a video of them making the pictures. One of the artists took a flame from a place in Fukuoka where a flame from the Hiroshima bombing has been kept burning since 1945. They used this flame to burn the pictures made with plaster and rope with the help of lots of gasoline.

In the main hall there were more burnt paintings and a big mountain made of what looked like millions of origami peace cranes. There was little passage way so you could go inside the mountain – it was kind of freaky being inside and I didn’t want to be trapped in there.

We watched a video that showed crows in Fukushima that came to Tokyo and the people in Tokyo looked really freaked out. While we were watching, an old man talked to us. He said he was an A-bomb survivor who was 12 years old at the time if the bombing.

In the stairway there was “Destiny Child”, a doll in a jump suit holding coins in its hand. It was very scary and looked like it might come alive at any moment.

Right beside “Destiny Child” I noticed was a colored mark on the window frame with the number “45” above it. I wonder what that could be – does anyone know?

Downstairs there were more burnt paintings. One was of the giant tori gate at Miyajima and another a kind of ukiyoe. One room was full of these kinds of pictures. My favorite was one of a potato chip character. My dad’s favorite was an old style pixelated Super Mario.

One painting of a skull was in a box with “Do not enter tape” stretched across. It looked like the artists had burned the painting inside a metal box.

Inside some of the bank vaults with big doors with huge handles that looked like the things they close the hatches on a submarine there were stuffed rats that looked like Pikachu behind the bars!

Another room had lots of art about the Fukushima nuclear happening. One picture showed a dog left behind in the evacuation zone – it made me feel sad.

We went through a dark passage with mirrors at the corners and I couldn’t see very well. The final exhibit was a kissing light bulb exhibit but I think it was switched off because it was really dark. We had stayed after closing time and I was worried we would get locked in the bank overnight.

I learned about the Fukushima accident and think if you have the chance you should go an see this exhibition.

“Hiroshima!!!!!” continues until December 17. Read more about it here and here.

About Us

Joy and Paul Walsh started GetHiroshima in 1999 with the aim of creating an online English language resource to help people enjoy their time in this amazing city to the full. The mission remains the same and, whether you are here for a day or a decade, we hope that GetHiroshima helps you dig that little bit deeper, and get you a little bit closer to the heart of Hiroshima.